Leadership and the Middle East

When can we recall the last American president having such a tumultuous and acrimonious relationship with Israel?

There’s a school of thought that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been forced to take the lead on this international crisis. Does the world understand what is at stake and how this Middle East situation could lead quickly to Armageddon if there is inadequate leadership? Are we prepared to make the tough decisions in the Middle East to challenge Iran and its march to war?

More importantly, we need to understand that the countdown to a war between Israel and Iran has begun. American and European intelligence reports now estimate that Iran is precariously close to developing enough fissile material to develop a nuclear bomb. Tehran maintains that its program is strictly for civilian energy production. This is laughable. Iran has one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world. The idea that they require nuclear energy that is actually more costly than their gas-fueled plants is preposterous.

Tehran’s program is clearly aimed at developing a bomb. Even French President Nicolas Sarkozy has publicly stated that “Iran is working ... on a nuclear [weapons] program.” Israel — which is known as a single-bomb state because it would take one bomb to wipe it off the map — cannot let that happen.


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